Trading salutes for roots: Colonel prepares to be Janesville city manager

New Janesville City Manager Mark Freitag, center, keeps track of the family's possesions as they're moved into their new Janesville home. After double digit moves while in the military, Freitag has a system in palce for ensuring the least amount of difficulty over the process.

Bill Olmsted / bolmsted@gazettextra.com

While husband Mark oversees the move-in process, Patty Freitag takes a few minutes to disassemble a broken CD player the home's previous owner had left behind. A software engineer, Patty enjoys opportunities to explore the hardware side of things and has built numerous computers for the family.

Bill Olmsted / bolmsted@gazettextra.com

New Janesville City Manager Mark Freitag takes a moment away from overseeing the moving in process to offer some attention to granddaughter Abigail and daughter Bethany.

Bill Olmsted / bolmsted@gazettextra.com

Bethany Freitag and her daughter Abigail find a, temporarily, quiet space on the stairs to watch the family's possessions get moved into their new home on Janesville's north side.

Nick Agro/nagro@gazettextra.com

Janesville's new city manager, Mark Freitag, left, pushes his granddaughter Abigail, along with his wife, Patty, center and daughter Bethany at a park near their new home.

Nick Agro/nagro@gazettextra.com

Janesville's new City Manager Mark Freitag, plays with his granddaughter Abigail, while his wife Patty looks on.

Nick Agro/nagro@gazettextra.com

Janesville's new city manager Mark Freitag, and his wife Patty play with their granddaughter Abigail at a park near the family's new Janesville home.

A MILITARY CAREER

Mark Freitag, who will start as Janesville city manager Dec. 2, and his wife, Patty, have been stationed throughout the country and overseas during Freitag's 25-year career in the Army.

Deployments and highlights along the way included:

-- Two years in Germany, where Freitag served as a foreign area officer.

-- United Nations military observer in the Republic of Georgia—formerly part of the Soviet Union—in 2001.

-- Combat deployment in Operation Desert Shield and Operation Desert Storm from 1990 to 1991. Freitag was stationed in Saudi Arabia and Iraq.

-- Combat deployment in Operation Iraqi Freedom from April to July 2003.

-- Combat deployment in Iraq for 16 months in 2005 and 2006. It was dangerous, long and intense, he said. Freitag commanded the 4th Squadron, 14th Cavalry Regiment of the 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team stationed in Fort Wainwright, Alaska. He was first in Al Anbar Province, an area Freitag described as still being “very much the wild, wild west.”

The squadron was set to leave Iraq—some of his men were already back in Alaska—when its tour was extended to Baghdad.

The extension was devastating to morale, but Freitag said he was able to turn a negative into a positive. He filled his soldiers with pride, telling them things were so bad in Baghdad the Army needed the best.

They didn't call up the 101st Airborne Division or the Fourth Infantry Division, Freitag recalled telling them. They asked for the Stryker, a testament to the skills of the brigade.

“The nation needs us,” he told them.

Freitag lost nine soldiers of the 500 he commanded. Another 120 were wounded.

Freitag himself experienced numerous close calls.

Once, the enemy detonated an improvised explosive device a half-second early and it exploded under the front of his armored vehicle rather than directly under it. All of them walked away.

His first near-death experience was life changing, he recalled.

“You kind of evaluate what's really is important,” Freitag said.

Patty agreed, saying the deployments brought the couple closer.

“Mark gained an appreciation for life and for family,” she said.

An admitted perfectionist, he learned not to sweat the small stuff.

-- Awards and decorations that include the Defense Superior Service Medal, the Legion of Merit with Oak Leaf Cluster, the Bronze Star with Oak Leaf Cluster and a Combat Action Badge.

Freitag declined to list his medals when asked, but The Gazette located some of his major honors online. Later, Freitag acknowledged he has a "chestful."

JANESVILLE--Even Mark Freitag sounds a bit surprised he got the top job in Janesville.

The 47-year-old retired Army Colonel who hasn't worked off a military base in his adult life just moved into his Briar Crest home and is readying for his Dec. 2 start as city manager.

Earlier this month, Freitag meticulously checked off each packed box carried in from the moving van, directing haulers to the right rooms and affirming his skill at moving. The longest he has lived anywhere was just shy of four years at West Point Academy.

In the basement, his wife, Patty, took apart and reassembled a jammed CD player left behind by the previous owner.

The couple are sure they'll like it in Janesville.

They have observed and appreciate Midwestern core values—common courtesy, general friendliness and respect for elders.

That doesn't happen everywhere in the country, Freitag said during a recent lengthy interview with him and Patty.

“Those are all the things we together want to have as we move into this second phase of our life," he said.

“Those are the things we want our granddaughter, Abby, to grow up with and we'd like (daughter) Bethany to experience as a young adult.”

Janesville is neat, clean and orderly, another thing that stood out for the couple.

They appreciate the national companies represented here, such as Olive Garden and Target, venues not available in Fairbanks, Ala., where Freitag was deputy commander of Army forces in Alaska

“Having been with the bare minimum of things, there is more than enough for the average person to do, see and experience in Janesville,” Patty said.

The Freitags caught a whiff of a pungent Midwest aroma—manure in the air—when he interviewed for the job in August.

And they even liked that.

“We thought, this was neat,” Patty Freitag recalled.

Freitag doesn't view the Janesville city manager job as a stepping stone for another place or career.

“If I can stay here 20 years … that's fine,” he said.

Patty said she's tired of moving. She is a software developer and tester and works out of her home. She hopes to find something locally.

“I want to be part of a community and keep track of friends other than by email,” she said.

FROM COLONEL TO CITY MANAGER

Freitag decided in spring 2013 to forge a different career path and leave the Army five years short of mandatory retirement knowing a promotion to brigadier general would be almost impossible.

Freitag is confident his military experience will translate to a civilian job and is grateful the Janesville City Council has given him a chance to prove it.

He acknowledged his resume different from other candidates steeped in city management experience.

But Freitag's resume includes a nugget that convinced first the recruiter and then the council to give him a second look: two years as garrison leader of Fort Hood, a Texas installation of 90,000 surrounded by another 300,000 Army families, survivors and retirees.

It was at Fort Hood that Freitag realized his passion for city management and for leading by consensus as opposed to the top-down style of the military, he said.

In his 25 years in the military, Freitag's responsibilities grew from platoon leader in charge of 35 soldiers to deputy commander in Alaska overseeing 12,500 troops, Freitag said.

City council members took a chance to “at least listen to me and talk to me and see how I played out,” he said. “I had 25 years of leadership experience running large organizations, and that played in my favor.”

The council's recruiter had just placed someone else with a military background in Fond du Lac, so the recruiter had an open mind, Freitag said.

The council was looking for a certain set of leadership, behavior and management characteristics, recruiter Karl Nollenberger recalled. Freitag was friendly and outgoing.

“By the time I finished interviewing him, he matched the (profile) … right to the T,” Nollenberger said.

Freitag doesn't have technical city government skills, Nollenberger said, but Freitag can learn them from Janesville's high-quality staff. He already has people skills, he said.

Freitag was born in Arizona in 1966 between his father's tours of duty in Vietnam. Lt. General Merle Freitag retired after 32 years, last serving as comptroller of the entire Army. Freitag's parents—his mom is Phyllis—live in St. Louis, Mo.

Freitag said he thrived on the military lifestyle, living throughout the United States and overseas.

“I found it absolutely exhilarating to move every three years, to see new places, meet new friends,” he said.

“As a kid, there was not anything I wanted to do other than be a soldier. To be perfectly honest, I didn't know anything different.”

Freitag was accepted to West Point Military Academy, where he earned an engineering degree. He also has master's degrees in business management and national security studies.

Freitag's first duty assignment was at Fort Bliss, Texas, where he met his wife, Patty. She was a waitress off base.

The couple's daughter, Bethany, 23, was born in El Paso, Texas. Their granddaughter, Abby, 17 months, was born in Alaska.

As garrison commander in Fort Hood, Texas, from 2010 to 2012, Freitag oversaw a $450 million budget for areas that included emergencies services, public works, utilities, planning, neighborhood services, morale, welfare and recreation.

Freitag started at Fort Hood six months after an Army major shot 13 people and wounded another 32. Some of Freitag's time was spent tightening security at the facility and dealing with the ensuing trauma.

There, Freitag said, he learned the beauty of consensus.

“It's much better to come to consensus, for thoughtful, well-intentioned leaders to come to a good solution,” Freitag said. “I didn't have the experience, knowledge or skills they (his administration team) did. I actively listened, and that made all the difference.”

Freitag found he enjoyed leading such a team. He enjoyed providing a service. And he found the 24/7 job stimulating.

“There was always something going on I was responsible for,” he said.

“Every time I heard a … siren on the installation, I knew my guys were going to take care of an emergency. If I saw a tree limb down, I knew I could make a phone call and my guys would come out there and fix it. I knew if a kids' soccer game was going on, those were my (people) running that program.”

TEAM OF TWO

In the Army, a commander and his or her spouse are called a “command team,” Freitag said.

It's not an official term, but the expectation is the spouse will be involved in installation activities and support military families.

Patty said she loved helping others on the base.

She was part of the care team that helped after a family was notified of a death or severe injury, for example. It was hard and draining, and Patty said she still cries today if she allows herself to think about it too much.

“But I wouldn't trade it for the world,” Patty said.

Once, she cared for a 1-year-old girl for a month while the baby's mother joined her seriously injured father at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C.

Freitag said city council members told him they wanted someone who would be visible in the community. With Patty, they might get more for the money.

READY TO ROLL

Freitag still misses the sound of bugles heralding revelry and retreat and the cannon salutes that rocked his house at 06:30 and 17:00.

“It was fabulous,” he recalled.

But Freitag promises he won't order city staff to roll out of bed for 06:30 PT (physical training). There will be no bugle calls or tanks thundering down the center of Janesville.

Freitag is trying to rid military acronyms and jargon from his speech—an occasional “check” still slips by—and is trying to think in civilian rather than military time.

He is happy to trade salutes for roots.

“We're hoping Janesville will become the longest we stay in one place."